New national league hits a snag

As expected, before the first steps toward a unified and national collegiate sports league could be taken, there are already hiccups. I expected the UAAP and the NCAA to offer the resistance but I was surprised to learn that it came from the Federation of School Sports Associations of the Philippines.

Noted Cebuano lawyer Baldomero Estenzo, a veteran sportsman who has seen groups come and go, says their group batted for a regional competition while Chito Loyzaga pushed for a national competition. Since Fessap already holds a national level competition, the creation of a new and unified sports league would essentially wipe it out.

Aside from Fessap, the Private Schools Athletic Association and its state colleges counterpart, Scuaa, also hold tourna- ments in the national level.

How do you reconcile that with a new league? Will the three—Fessap, Prisaa, Scuaa— have to die to give way to a new one? Can four national-level tournaments co-exist?

These are questions the Philippine Sports Commission— which is leading the creation of a unified league—has to address. Fessap and Estenzo played it safe by batting for a regional competition only, hence there won’t be a clash if it goes national.

But the thing is, if you create a new and unified collegiate sports league, why stop at the regional level? That defeats the whole purpose, doesn’t it?

You cannot create a country on the corpses of your countryman, Digong loves to say that line, and to borrow that, you cannot create a new and unified sports league on the corpses of the old; there will be resistance.

Which begs this question: Do we really need a national collegiate league? Simple answer is yes because those that are national in nature--Fessap, Prisaa, Scuaa--have limited memberships.

And since it is these three that have experience in holding national meets, wouldn’t it be prudent to tap them or to use them as the backbone of a new one?

Whatever path the PSC chooses in the creation of a new league, I hope it will be one that will use a strong foundation. We need a national league and we needed it yesterday, Manila is not the Philippines as I love to say and I hope that should a new league do arise, it will be one that will outlast the present PSC officials, not one that will end when their terms end.